With computer applications, such as word processing, spreadsheet and computer-aided design programs, computers in homes and offices can be used to produce an infinite variety of documents. Frequently, it is desired to have those document rendered in hardcopy form for storage or transmission. Consequently, printers have been developed that allow users to print, in gray scale or full color, the documents produced or stored on a computer.
There are a wide variety of printers and printing devices. For purposes of this specification, the terms “printer” and “printing device” will be defined to include any device that produces a hardcopy document on a print medium from electronic data, including, but not limited to, laser printers, inkjet printers, facsimile machines, photocopiers, digital copiers, etc.
In addition to the wide variety of printing devices, there is also a wide variety of print mediums. A printing device may print on, for example, paper, cardstock, construction paper, envelopes, adhesive labels, transparencies, canvas, vinyl, glossy coated paper, fine art watercolor paper, and other print mediums. As used herein, the term “print medium” will be defined as any medium that can be used by a printing device when producing a hardcopy.
Each print medium may have different characteristics that allow it to work well, or cause it to work poorly, with a particular printing device. For example, some print mediums may be too thick for the feeding mechanism of a particular printing device. Some print mediums may be damaged by the heat or other conditions used by the printing device to render an image on the print medium. Sometimes local ambient conditions, such as humidity, can affect certain types of print mediums and how those print mediums respond to the particular printing device.
Unfortunately, printers and printing devices do not have any means of determining what print medium is supplied and what, if any, parameter adjustments could or should be made to best accommodate that print medium.
In some printers, different sizes of print media can be placed in different supply trays. The printer may then be programmed by a user as to which size of print medium will be found in which tray. The printer can then select a print medium size specified as part of a print job by drawing a sheet of print medium from the designated tray. However, if the wrong size or type of print medium has been placed in that tray, the conventional printing device will have no way of knowing that the print medium is not that specified.